The Most Graceful of Pilots
by Raevyn M
Summary: She was the most graceful of the pilots. Her guide, Howard. Why didn't she make it to operation meteor? This is the story of Howand and the sixth Gundam pilot; *FINISHED*. Please read and review. Flames. . . whatever.


Rebecca Lee, the most graceful of pilots  
  
By: Raevyn Maxwell  
  
~*~*~*~*~*  
  
She was strong, beautiful, and brave. Her Gundam was like an outer skin; they moved together in perfect unison. A team the colonies would have been proud of, she held strong to her ideals. An unlucky break had killed the most graceful of pilots. Such a waste. . .  
  
~*~*~*~*~*  
  
Rebecca Lee always smiled when she fought. There was something about the heat of battle and the rush of adrenaline that had appeased to her. Her fists and legs were blurs as the beat the crap out of a punching bag in the small, but efficient gym. Unlike the other pilots, she was to be raised on earth. If Operation Meteor had gone the way Dekim and Quines had planned, she would be the first to weaken the cities and military before the other five arrived to take complete control. But, Operation Meteor wouldn't go like that, she would be free of the burden of slaying millions, but for now, she trained.  
  
She wore tight black running shorts and a black sports bra. Her hands and lower legs were wrapped in cloth. She had a sweatband around her head to keep her rust colored bangs and sweat from dripping in her eyes. The rest of her hair was kept in a loose hairband. At the age of 14, she was already an awesome and dangerous fighter. Her skills were not only of hand-to-hand combat, but in stealth maneuvers, both in and out of her Gundam, and gun and ammo combat.  
  
"Hey Rebecca." A raspy, but humored, voice called out from the doorway, "I made a few modifications to the Lucifer, come and take a look."  
  
"I'll be right there when I finish up here Howard." She answered, a grin playing on her face. She trusted Howard with her Gundam, and knew whatever change he made would be an improvement. After another five minutes of beating the bag senseless, she grabbed a towel and wiped off her face. She stood in complete serenity for about two minutes, breathing in and out, relaxing. On the way out she contemplated hitting the showers, but the thought quickly left her mind when she reminded herself of the modifications on her Gundam. She let out a small shout of glee and ran out of the living quarters, grabbing her gun and it's holster, which she flung over her shoulder.  
  
Rebecca squinted her eyes as she stepped into the evening sunlight. They were in an abandoned airfield on the southwestern coast of California, in the United States. As she waited to get adjusted to the glare of sun, she breathed heavily, partially from her workout earlier, mostly because the smell of the ocean always soothed her. With the ocean pounding on her right, their living quarters behind her, the runway on her left, she started towards the massive hangers in front of her. They were built to hold airplanes, as opposed to mobile suits, so they were longer and wider than they were tall.  
  
When she finally got to the door to the hanger, she punched in the code next to the door and it unlocked, allowing her in. As soon as she opened it, she sighed and gave a light laugh. He had turned the lights off, probably trying to make this a big surprise. She groped at the wall on her right, feeling for the light switches. A sound that was barely indictable came from behind her. She stopped as the hairs on the back of her neck stiffened. In one movement, she drew her gun, spun around, and turned on the lights with her open hand.  
  
"Howard? You know not to try and sneak up on me." She laughed, putting the gun back in it's holster. He was wearing a Hawaiian shirt, kaki shorts, sandals, and black sunglass. His hands were raised defensively,  
  
"I just wanted to see the look on your face when you saw Lucifer."  
  
"Oh yeah, that's right." She turned and looked at the sitting Gundam. It was a deep maroon red, and was in a crouched position, considering it was unable to stand in the airplane hanger. The left arm was a massive gatling gun, and the right arm was used to grasp the beam sword and also had a shield attached to the lower arm. The torso and legs were nothing out of the ordinary, but there was one thing missing,  
  
"Gah! Howard! What did you do with her wings?! They're gone!" Rebecca said, panicking slightly. She ran around to the back of the Gundam and stared, the massive wings had been removed, and replaced with two long, thin engines that extended outward from between the shoulders.  
  
"You like'm eh?" Howard said, coming around to the back.  
  
Rebecca stared at him, "Like them?! What the hell are they?"  
  
"Multiplane Engines."  
  
"Multiplane? What is that?"  
  
"A high-powered engine that can be used as both a thruster and a weapon." The expression on her face made him laugh, "Here, let me show you." He led her to a computer console and pulled open a digital program that showed a Gundam and it's capabilities. On the screen was Lucifer with the Minovsky engines. Rebecca stood next to Howard, still looking annoyed. "You see Rebecca," he said, running the 'fly' program on the engines, "when they are turned on, they form large sweeping wings that are extremely powerful and can moved in any direction, giving the Lucifer amazing flight capability." As he talked, the digital Lucifer was demonstrating the multiple abilities. It could fly up, down, left, and right, all by moving the protruding engines on its back.  
  
"You said they could also be used as weapons?" Rebecca asked. Howard ran the 'Wing Cannon' program, and the engines on digital Lucifer's back rotated 180 degrees around the top to be facing the front. He ran the 'fire cannon' program, and showed her that the ends of the engines fired two beam cannons.  
  
"You see Rebecca, when you use the engines for flight and maneuverability, the thrusters are pointed downward and in a spread out way, so they look like wings. When they are moved to point forward, that thruster energy is all transferred to one point, and it becomes an unstoppable beam cannon."  
  
"What if I want to fire the beam cannon and move around?"  
  
"There are smaller auxiliary thrusters that are on the back and feet and can be used for short amounts of time."  
  
Rebecca nodded, then sat heavily in the chair, a huge smile on her face. "Howard, this is so amazing! When can I take her for a test ride with her new thrusters?"  
  
Howard laughed and put a hand on her head, like a father would. "Tonight. I've already checked if there were to be any patrols that would fly over tonight; it's all clear, the sky is ours tonight." She gave a gleeful laugh and tackled Howard in a hug. "Thank you so much!! Uhm. . . I hope you don't mind, but I'll be back in a couple hours, I have some things I need to finish up."  
  
"Fine then, see you in a bit. I have some things I need to finish on Lucifer anyway."  
  
She waved and headed out of the hanger, still gleeful and barely restraining her excitement. A new set of thrusters that doubled as beam cannons! The idea made her want to jump with joy. But, she kept her dignity intact and restrained herself from doing so. The sun had just set over the ocean as she walked back to the living quarters. Because patrols occasionally flew over, they were forced to keep all lights outside off, so Rebecca had the place entire memorized, even every crack in the concrete she had to avoid to keep from tripping.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*  
  
Later that night, Rebecca came out to the hanger. She had taken a shower and cleaned up. She was wearing a tight blue tank top and baggy brown shorts. The cloth was re-wrapped around her lower arms and feet, she never wore shoes anyway. Her rust-colored hair was put in a high hair-tie and her bangs hung loosely around her eyes. Lucifer was on it's back and on a flatbed trailer used for mobile suits.  
  
"Howard, is she ready to go?" she asked him as he stepped out of the cockpit, wiping his hands off with a cloth.  
  
"Ready when you are Rebecca."  
  
She smirked and jumped in, pulling the straps in tight around her. Howard's face appeared on the screen.  
  
"Remember, don't have too much fun or you'll catch the attention of the military."  
  
"Stop worrying Howard. They'll probably think there are some military MS doing their stuff. But I'll be careful anyway."  
  
"Alright then, good luck then."  
  
The flatbed trailer rolled out of the hanger and into the night. When she was clear, Rebecca stood Lucifer up. "She's easier to control now that her big metal wings aren't weighing her down." She said to no one in particular.  
  
"Alright Rebecca, there are new controls on your left that control the Multiplane engines. To rotate them to the beam cannon mode, the thrusters have to be off, which means the auxiliary engines need to be turned on."  
  
"Roger that."  
  
For the next three hours, Howard tutored Rebecca on the proper use of the Lucifer's Multiplane Engines. He had small dummy targets sent out to practice the beam cannons, and had her pull many different maneuvers to get used the different abilities of the engines in their Wing mode. Although Howard always appeared laid back, he was a strict coach and an even better engineer.  
  
After the long and exhausting training session, Rebecca headed off to bed, a huge grin on her face. The exhilaration of piloting Lucifer with the new engines wore her out, but it was like a dream come true. As she took the long strips of cloth off her arms and legs, she looked upon scars she wished would disappear forever.  
  
Rebecca had lived in an abusive family for the first eight years of her life. Her father would come home drunk, and she was beat upon by her older brother. Her mother died in childbirth. On her eighth birthday, she snuck away and joined a gang, becoming a prominent fighter at even such a young age. Her nickname was Smirk because she would smile when she fought.  
  
She met Howard when she was staying in homeless shelter. He was bringing in donations and she had tried to steal from him. Well, he caught her and brought her to his home at the abandoned airbase. After a week of distrust, she slowly learned to like being around him. After he asked her to fight for him in a cause for the colonies, she agreed. Mostly because she enjoyed fighting, but also because she felt that she owed him something for taking her in.  
  
But, as of now, she was exhausted. She gave another huge yawn and lay down in her bed, falling asleep as her head hit the pillow.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*  
  
The forest was dead silent as Howard and Rebecca hiked up the mountains. They had been practicing on Lucifer all week, and this was something to help them relax. The trees cast shadows upon everything below them, creating strange and unique patterns on the ground. Grass wasn't scarce, but it didn't blanket everything. A bleeping interrupted the serene silence. Rebecca, who was drinking from a water bottle, turned to Howard, who was digging out something in his pocket.  
  
"What's that Howard?"  
  
"It's my alarm system for the hanger Lucifer stays in. Someone tripped the silent alarm."  
  
"All of the assistants know how to turn it off right?"  
  
Howard looked up with real concern on his face. "This is serious Rebecca. We have to go back."  
  
"Hold on a sec, then we can go."  
  
She set her water bottle down and climbed up a large pine tree. She disappeared from sight for a brief moment, but then came down in a flash, her concern now reflecting Howard's.  
  
"Howard, I can't see much because there is a hill between us and the base, but there are definitely a couple Leos there. Also a troop carrier, maybe more. You still in good shape old man?" she asked.  
  
Howard nodded, "Yeah, but I'll have to go slower than you. Run on ahead, but don't do anything stupid."  
  
Rebecca didn't answer him, she just smiled. After grabbing their stuff, they headed down the mountain at full speed run. All the information about the changed Operation Meteor and the Gundam was there, the last thing they needed was some military, especially OZ, to figure out what was going on.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*  
  
After about 20 minutes of hard running, Rebecca finally made it back to the base. She had outran Howard a long time ago. She had to stay in the cover of the trees before she could move in. It turned out that there were three troop carriers and four MS, three Leos and an Aries. The gun at her side was definitely not enough to get through, she had to get into the extra rooms at the hanger and get into the gun and ammo room. No problem.  
  
After searching for about five minutes, she found the most sheltered way to get to the hangar, so she proceeded inside. At every corner she had to wait patiently so she could be careful not to run into any OZ soldiers. When she finally made it to the ammo room, she grabbed a machine gun and two extra light-weight guns. Just after she grabbed a belt full of ammo and was about to leave, she heard voices,  
  
". . . good thing we found this place."  
  
". . . yeah, we needed a place to rest and recoop for a bit."  
  
"Did you hear about what the colonel found in the main hangar?"  
  
"Yeah, some big mobile suit. . . "  
  
". . .never seen anything like it. . ."  
  
Rebecca had heard enough. She stepped outside the room and with well timed kicks and blows, knocked the three soldiers unconscious. They wore OZ uniforms. "Damn." Rebecca seethed, continuing down the hall. The most important thing she could do now would be to get to the Gundam and detonate it. It could always be rebuilt, but the technology and the attack plans could NOT fall into OZ hands. Since she was now in a hurry, she was less careful about where she went, which resulted in her running into a troop of soldiers!  
  
~*~*~*~*~*  
  
Howard's age was definitely getting to him. Ten minutes after Rebecca entered the building, he came out of the forest and was just as shocked as Rebecca when he saw the troops. Since he knew the place just as well as Rebecca did, he took the same route to get to the ammo room, and loaded up with identical supplies. He saw the three OZ soldiers knocked cold and beamed with pride, 'She can certainly take care of herself.' He thought.  
  
Then the gunfire rang out.  
  
Instead of going straight to it, Howard knew what Rebecca was doing. They talked about this possibility before, and it was his responsibility to get the plans of Operation Meteor and the design files of the Gundam. To get these, he had to go to the same place Rebecca was going to: the main hangar.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*  
  
The OZ soldiers were everywhere! Rebecca could not seem to avoid them. No matter how many she killed and however many corners she turned, there seemed to be more and more. As she ran, bullets pinging off the walls and floor, she felt a sharp sting on the right side of her ribcage. She restrained a cry continued on, 'So that's what it feels like to be shot.' She thought.  
  
So distracted by the wound, she ran right into an OZ soldier just before the doorway to the hanger. He lifted the butt of his gun and brought it down on her head. As she fell she lifted the machine gun and killed the guy who had struck her. When she saw how close she was to the hangar, she got her second wind and pressed onward.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*  
  
Howard was having better luck. Everyone was going to Rebecca's position, so he was free to make it to the computer. There was an OZ soldier attempting to hack into it as he snuck up on him. Howard smirked and knocked the guy senseless. The computer was in a corner of the hangar, so he was virtually unnoticed as he destroyed the information the computer contained. Out of a side entrance, Rebecca came storming in. She looked at Howard's direction and gave the smile she was so known for. "You know the room to be in Howard. " she yelled, not looking at him to avoid giving away his position. It was the code for, 'Take cover in the safe room, this thing is going to explode.' Howard nodded as the files finished deleting. He crouched down behind the computer and covered her back by using his own machine gun and destroying many OZ soldiers.  
  
The Lucifer was still on its back from the previous week's flights, which gave Rebecca easy access to the cockpit. While she jumped up, a bullet pierced her shoulder, causing her to drop her machine gun. She swore as she got into the cockpit of the Gundam.  
  
"Damn! I can't pilot in this condition. Looks like this thing's going to meet its maker." She said as blood dripped from the wounds in her head, shoulder, and side. It hurt to breathe, and blood kept getting into her eyes, but she managed to activate the delayed self-detonation sequence. She had two minutes to get out of the Gundam and get to the safe room that was underground and next to the hangar.  
  
She heard someone step behind her, then the cock of a gun. As fast as lightning she turned with her own gun in hand, and aimed it at the intruder, but she just got far enough to see him. He was wearing the OZ officer outfit and had a white helmet over his face, out from which flowed long platinum hair. His hand was holding a gun aimed right at her head. The self-detonation alarm of the Gundam was going off as a gunshot exploded inside the cockpit.  
  
Rebecca slumped down over the panels of the Gundam, blood pouring from the gunshot wound through her head. The screen underneath the blood flashed, 'Operation M failure. Self-detonation sequence activated.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*  
  
Howard had given a sigh of relief when the self-detonation alarms went off, but this comfort of confidentiality was short lived when he saw the man in the mask make it to the top of the Gundam and in front of the cockpit. The bullet from the gun seemed to go in slow motion for Howard.  
  
Rebecca was in there though. Why did the man jump down. . . alive?  
  
No. It can't be.  
  
The loud alarm brought him back to his senses. He fired off his last round in his gun and ran for the safe room, which was actually a hole in the ground with a door. His last sight of that room was the OZ soldiers scampering from the Gundam as fast as humanly possible.  
  
As the suit exploded, Howard sat in the safe room. Alone.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*  
  
It was raining when Howard finally got out of the underground room. Rubble had fallen on top of the entrance, so it had taken a while for Howard to dig himself out. He wished he hadn't.  
  
The abandoned airbase where he and Rebecca trained and lived together was now a crater in the ground. The Leos and Aries had taken off before the Gundam detonated, and the troop carriers and their troops were decimated. He wandered through aimlessly, searching for anything familiar or comforting. The rain had soaked him through when he found Rebecca. She had been blown clear of the blast when her Gundam exploded. He came close to her huddled form on the ground, and hesitated before kneeling down and touching her. He rolled her onto her back and saw the bullet wounds in her side, shoulder, and head. With two shaking fingers to her throat, he felt for a pulse that he knew did not exist.  
  
"Oh God, Rebecca." He muttered. He leaned down and picked her up, and hiked into the mountains to lay her to rest.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*  
  
A bleeping woke the braided boy from his sleep. He came to the screen and turned the monitor on,  
  
"What do you want?" he moaned, still half-asleep, "And how did you get on this line? This is a private system!"  
  
Howard looked at the braided boy, 'So, this was your choice.' He thought.  
  
"Let me speak to Professor G." he said simply.  
  
"How do you know. . ."  
  
"Duo, is someone on line?" a voice came from off screen. Duo turned to him,  
  
"Yeah, and he wants to talk to you."  
  
"Let me take this." Duo moved out of the way and an old man with umbrella- like hair came onto the screen. "Howard?" He turned to Duo, "Don't worry, this is a man we can trust. Can you leave us alone? It's about time you woke up anyway."  
  
Duo merely shrugged and headed out, "Whatever old man."  
  
As soon as the door shut, Professor G turned to Howard.  
  
"What happened? You know we aren't supposed to communicate."  
  
Howard nodded, "I know, I know, but this is an emergency." Professor G's face lit up with recognition, "Was that explosion at your place on earth?"  
  
Howard nodded, "How much do they know about what's going on?"  
  
"Not much. The news is reporting it that the abandoned airbase was being used to carry arms for the Alliance, and that when some OZ troops stopped there to rest they accidentally tripped the system that would destroy the weapons. Did you save all the information about Operation M and the Gundams? How is your charge?"  
  
"I got all the information out safely, but Rebecca. . ." he stopped in mid- sentence. Professor G's expression was unreadable.  
  
"It looks like Operation Meteor will have only five pilots then. I'll tell Duo to use you for a reliable resource when it comes to repairing and rearming his Gundam. Be sure you get another place set up; he'll know how to find you."  
  
Howard said nothing. He just nodded his head.  
  
"I'm sorry Howard." Professor G said. Howard disconnected and looked up, wondering how different everything would be with only five pilots against OZ. He was sure they'd do just fine.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*  
  
He was up in the mountains again, visiting Rebecca one last time. In front of him was the largest tree within 30 miles. Carved on the tree were the words, "Rebecca Lee. The most graceful of pilots." Below the carving, wrapped around the tree, were the cloth that she wore around her lower arms and legs. The loose cloth blew in the light wind. It was the beginning of AC 196, and Operation Meteor proceeded as the doctors had planned.  
  
-End Transmission-  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing, Howard, Professor G, Duo, or Zechs. Rebecca and the Lucifer will forever be my creations.  
  
A/N Well, there you have it, the story of the sixth Gundam pilot and her guide, Howard. She never really made it into battle, but Howard remained a valuable asset throughout the operation, helping the other pilots when they needed it.  
  
Please review and give me your thoughts; Raevyn. 


End file.
